this happened to my friend. a man came to her door wanting to sign her up for a new medicare program. when she got her medicare summary notice, it was full of charges for services she hadn't received! so, i did something about it... i joined the senior medicare patrol where i teach others to protect their medicare numbers, review statements to spot false charges, and report suspected fraud. case of a famous snack company. in today's cover story, retail employees aren't giving thanks for an early start to "black friday." how workers are pushing back. plus, a game plan for your taxes. how taxpayers are prepping their finances for a possible fall of the fiscal cliff. if you're traveling for the holiday, why it might be worth your money and time to risk cold turkey. and, find out what stock has gained 300% since the election. first business starts now.

you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning. it's tuesday, november 20th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: traders and investers are feeling better about the possible ending for the cliff hanger in washington. they were buying the market with both hands on monday, leaving green arrows pointing higher across the screen for stocks and commodities. federal reserve chair ben bernanke speaks today at a new york economic club meeting. he's expected to talk about monetary easing and the economic recovery. eurozone leaders meet today to talk about bailout funding for greece. and the world bank says more droughts are likely world-wide as global temperatures continue to rise. violence is ratching up in the middle east. john brady of rj o'brien joins us now for a look at the trading day from cme group. good to have you on the show this morning. > > thank you much. > > oil prices were higher

yesterday by almost 3% during the session at one point. is the middle east the main driver behind the move? > > i don't think so actually. i think the the strength in crude was mirrored by strength in other commodities as well, and specifically risk assets had a super day on monday with the idea that over the course of the weekend, treasury secretary geithner, president obama and other high-ranking administration and congressional officials seemed to hint to the media that a fiscal cliff deal would happen before the middle of or end of december, and thus risk assets took that as meaning that, really in the background, fiscal cliff negotiations are speeding up and are intensifying, and that we will have a solution. so monday's trade was really about a fiscal cliff solution. the dollar was lower, commodity prices were higher, and equities of course were higher as well. > > equities were much higher. how much of that has to do though with maybe some oversold conditions in the market?

> > i think oversold conditions certainly are a part of it. the idea that the fiscal cliff will get resolved in short order is another part of it. and then third, yields on treasuries remain awfully paltry and small. you saw treasuries sell off during the course of monday. the treasury curse deepened. and really equities were the beneficiary of those capital flows as there was large asset allocation trade out of bond futures and into equity futures. > > you mentioned the dollar. as money is moving away from the dollar, is that a positive sign, perhaps even going into the end of the year? vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv show. that's john brady. > > thank you. there will be push-back this thanksgiving, and not all of it away from the table after the turkey. in our cover story, retailers hoping to get a jump on black friday shoppers by opening thanksgiving evening are getting resistance from employees who'd rather stay home for the holiday. target employee casey st. clair delivered boxes filled with petitions with what she said were 350,000 signatures opposing target stores opening on thanksgiving. "there were shareholders who signed my petition saying that they agreed with what i'm trying to do." st. clair is one of change.org's 20 million users - it's a

platform that can gather support in a hurry. but opinions come pretty quickly even without a website. "i wouldn't love it, but if that's what i've got to do, that's what i have to do." "there are so many people who need a job. i'd work on thanksgiving if they asked me to." "they can do what they want, and if you don't like it, you can get a job somewhere else, although in this economy, that's not the easiest thing to do." about a third of target's 300,000 employess are being scheduled to work thanksgiving night. in a statement, target's managment says it's had talks "to make sure they are comfortable with their scheduled shifts... with opportunity to express concern." and that "hundreds of stores had more volunteeers wanting to work than shifts to fill." "they can pick up additional hours, they're excited, they get holiday pay and they know our need to compete." target is not alone in this controversy. walmart, which is bracing for picketers when it opens thursday evening, has already filed an unfair labor practice charge against union members. walmart employees, some of whom say they're shift sharts at 3pm, were not given a choice. "i think it's a gift to those

worker advocacy groups that will help unionize walmart." walmart, the largest private employer in the u.s. with nearly a million-and-a-half workers, calls union involvement in the anticipated strikes unlawful and is busy preparing for black friday and its post- black friday technology and toy sales saturday. a sweet ending may be in the works for hostess. potential buyers are stepping forward, plus a bankruptcy judge was able to get hostess, the lenders and the union to agree to mediation to avert liquidation of the snack food company. twinkie sales have never been hotter. we found a box of 10 twinkies going for $20 and more on ebay. hostess goodies became a hot commodity after the company shutout workers last week and went to court monday to liquidate, leaving 18,000 employees stunned that hostess could give up its iconic treats. "twinkies, it's a legend, the history is very long."

"in bankrupcty there is great power on behalf of the bankrupty judge." the bankruptcy judge hearing the hostess case was able to convince the company to try mediation with the union. the arm of the department of justice that oversees bankruptcy cases is also slowing the hostess roll by coming out against the company's plan to offer exit bonuses to hostess executives. unions call the bonuses unfair. but, attorney hugh totten says it's not that unusual. "it sounds bizarre. in a normal situation management does get paid bonuses to stay on because they would flee. they would go someplace else, they'd leave and would find a new job and would leave the company crippled to re- organize or in this case sell itself to the highest bidder." the ceo of hostess tells abc

news the list of potential bidders includes conagra, flowerfoods, and el grupo bimbo. private equity firm metropoulos & company is also said to be interested. hostess is owned by a private equity firm and hedge funds. "we hope somebody can come and buy us. i think we were very productive, we were working overtime. i just don't know what they did with the money." today, when hostess officials meet with union reps, they will be talking about what led up to the worker strike that hostess blames for the company's closure. the president returns to washington later today following several days in asia. even while out of the country, the president is working to get business resolved back home. politico reports that over the weekend, the president extended a hand to some of the country's top ceos. on that list, billionaire warren buffet, jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon, and apple's tim cook, as well as executives of boeing and costco. the calls were reportedly part of the president's efforts to discuss solutions to the looming end-of-the-year fiscal cliff. while in thailand this weekend, the president, as he put it,

was "confident we can get our fiscal situation dealt with." toys 'r' us executives are betting that a growing middle class in china will buy more toys for their children. the toy retailer is launching online sales this week in china, to be followed by a doubling of its 30 brick-and-mortar stores over the next few years. the toys that toys 'r' us is selling will, however, be a little different than the playtime mainstays in the states. china has a higher demand for educational toys such as books, microscopes and building blocks. toy sales in china rose 18% last year. corporate america is holding on to its cash, tightly. a new report reveals 40 of the largest publicly-traded companies plan to hold back on captial investments for the next two years. overall, business investments are down for the first time since 2009. it's attributed to fiscal cliff fears on capitol hill. corporate america has been one of the most public groups to urge congress to avert going over the cliff. reportedly, the corporate sector has started protecting its profits much like it did during the financial crisis.

the housing market continues to heal. existing home sales and home prices both edged up in october according to the national association of realtors. sales of previously owned homes rose 2.1%, exceeding economists' expectations. the median price of those homes climbed 11.1% to $178,600. additionally, the number of homes on the market decreased 1.4% to 2.14 million, the fewest since december 2002. the gains are said to have a positive effect on consumer confidence and spending. 26 billion dollars - that's the amount big banks say has been given to help struggling homeowners. foreclosure abuse practices following the housing crisis led banks to reach a settlement with the federal government to help fund a relief program. bank of america, jp morgan chase, wells fargo, citigroup and ally financial all contributed. the average homeowner was given $84,000. reports say 300,000 people benefitted from the settlement.

the federal reserve bank of new york came out as a winner against the former ceo of aig. the courts are dismissing a $25 billion lawsuit. it accuses the fed of unlawfully bailing out out the insurance company during the 2008 financial crisis. the lawsuit was led by former aig ceo hank greenberg. the government continues to sell off its shares of aig, and currently owns less than a 16% stake. after nearly four decades at the helm of intel, ceo paul otellini will retire in may. during his tenure at the world's largest chip-maker, otellini saw both highs and some lows. intel dominated desktop and personal computing, but fell behind in the era of tablets and smartphones. intel has seen its fortunes with that section of the market improve, but still lags. however, intel did continue to set sales and profit records in 2011. intel's board of directors will look at both internal and external candidates to replace otellini.

it's hello ruby tuesday for jj buettgen. he's leaving his post as chief marketing officer at darden restaurants to become president and ceo of ruby tuesday. he starts the job december 1st. ruby tuesday's shares ralied more than 3% on monday. in arizona today, state officials will perform their final inspection of that state's first medical marijuana dispensary. and there's a particular stock that is capturing wall street's attention: medical marijuana inc. is the first publicly traded company and its stock has risen more than 300% in the last several thanksgiving travel might actually save you time - and money. a study finds flights scheduled on thanksgiving typically arrive on time compared to flights before the holiday. 94% of planes landed on time on turkey day last year. flyers also saved more. booking a trip for thursday can save an estimated $288 round trip. small businesses have stepped it up when it comes to spreading holiday cheer to employees. a study by american express finds that more small business owners plan to give workers a holiday bonus this

year. 35% plan on giving a bonus, up from 29% last year. office parties are also on the rise. 4 out of 10 companies will throw a party, shelling out an average of $900. still to come, how taxpayers are bracing themselves for a fall off the fiscal cliff. that's later. but first, how low can they go? interest rates continue to drop. why it's hurting one very important industry. that's next after this "in the know" message.

super low interest rates. that can be a good thing if you have a mortgage or for business loans. but they are a bad thing though for insurance companies, because they make much of their money by investing the premiums you pay to them. so to offset the meagre returns, many insurers now are quietly either raising rates or eliminating or suspending some of their products. byron udell is the founder and president of accuquote, which helps customers shop for insurance companies. tell us more about this. what's going on here? > > you summarized it pretty well. insurance companies, because they are earning less money on the premiums, after they've accepted the premiums and they're waiting to make claims, they have no choice but to - because the rates are so much lower - they have to raise their rates. this is only affecting policies that are issued now, or in the future. they are not going to be affecting the policies if you own a policy right now - for

instance, a 20-year level term, it will not affect your policies. > > insurance companies we're talking about - life insurance? > > all insurance companies are affected, because all insurance companies take money and wait for claims. but, i'm in the life insurance business, and in the life insurance business, what we have seen is carriers make 5-20% rate increases over the past few months, and more are coming. > > i was under the impression that now is a terrific time to buy life insurance. > > actually it is. this is about the bottom of the curve, sort of a reverse bell curve. if you go back to 1994, a 40- year-old male who bought a 20- year level term contract, $500,000, perfect health, nonsmoker, would have paid about $1,000 in 1994. today there are still 10 companies under $400, and right now there are still companies at the bottom, i mean the historical low. but, what we are seeing is a lot of those carriers that were under $400 a few months ago are now over $400 and they are raising their

prices gradually. again, this is all for new issues. if you bought a policy, and you locked in let's say a 3.75 rate for 20 years, you are set. > > all right, i am shopping around. how do i valuate it? is this a commodity, life- insurance? is it all about the price? > > on term insurance, a lot of consumers look at it as a commodity. there are some differences in quality, and there are differences in features. for instance, convertibility and some other features are important to consumers. but by and large, when consumers call us, they are looking for the best price on, let's say a 20-year or 30-year level term. so, what we do is we look at multiple carriers under one roof and try to find the best value for consumers. > > byron udell of accuquote, thank you so much. > > thanks. still ahead, we're putting all politics aside: if the u.s. tumbles off the fiscal cliff, what you'll need to know. that's next.

while talks to avert the so- called fiscal cliff are under way, tax planners and tax payers are scambling to make the best end-of-the-year moves in the event that tax breaks expire. david elyashar, cpa with horwich, coleman and levin, joins us now for some fiscal q&a. good to have you on the show this morning. > > thanks for having me. > > are you hearing from your clients, because there are so many variables about how this could all turn out? > > i am. a lot of people are worried because there is so

much uncertainty with tax rates. so i am getting a lot of questions of what to do, what kind of things can be done by the end of the year. > > how high or how low could those taxes come in? > > on the low end, the lowest income tax rates could jump from 10% to 15%, and the highest tax rate is going to be bumped all the way up to 39.6%. > > is it better now to take the year-end bonus, or wait until 2013? > > contrary to conventional wisdom which says you should defer income as long as possible, you are going to see a lot of people try to accelerate income into this year. so, for example, if you are set to receive a bonus in early 2013, you may try to receive that cash at the end of 2012 if you can. > > should you make more contributions than normal this year, to charities, for instance? > > you are certainly going to see a lot of people do that, and really you should accelerate charitable contributions if you are afraid that that's a

deduction that is on the chopping block. > > how will the alternative minimum tax be affected? > > certainly with the fiscal cliff looming, more americans are going to be subject to the alternative minimum tax. > > what about healthcare reform? will that play into taxes potentially? > > as part of obamacare, there is a new 3.8% surtax on investment income. so for families making over $250,000, they will have to pay that extra tax. > > thank you for answering all of our questions today. i hope you come back. i'm sure there is plenty more to talk about. > > thank you for having me. > > that is david elyashar. good to have you on the show. > > thank you. coming up, a stock that is up nearly 400% in the past 4 years may still be heading for the heavens. chart talk is next.

our heads are in the clouds this morning for chart talk. let's say good morning to scott bauer of trading advantage. good to have you on the show. > > thanks for having me angie. > > so, we are taking a look at

a stock this morning that has to do with cloud computing: salesforce.com. earnings are coming out today. what do you see here? > > you know, the stock has actually been kind of mired in this very small range, which is right almost exactly in the middle between its near-term support and -resistance levels. there's lots of activity, volatility has really picked up, which looks like there is going to be, priced in, about a $15 move perhaps when earnings come out later today. that is what the front-month straddle is trading. so, with the stock trading between $145 and $150, and $125 being major support, $165 being some resistance, that $15 move, if it is to the upside, will put you right up to that resistance level. now, what i would look to possibly take advantage of is the volatility in the front month has just risen so much in anticipation of these earnings, you can almost sell some out-of- the-money calls and puts, like a strangle, in the front-month options, and just buy some

cheaper protection against it in some of the back-month options. there is a huge disparity. > > this stock is up almost 400% since the last presidential election. what is driving the rally? > > you think about technology and you think about where actually we have evolved in the last four years, and this cloudspace really came out of nowhere. four years ago, who knew what the cloud meant, right? now there's this storage, and everybody with a smartphone and everybody in the tech world is using the cloud, and they were really at the forefront, and it has paid off big-time for them. > > good to have you on the show. that's scott bauer of trading advantage. > > thanks angie. that's it for today. coming up tomorrow, why so many americans are doing this... when they could be doing this... the reasons people choose work over play on wednesday's show. from all of us at first business, have a terrific

tuesday!

. complete bay area news coverage starts right now, this is ktvu channel 2 morning news. well, good morning, it is tuesday, i am in for pam cook, let's check in with steve paulson, good morning. increasing light rain has been to the north but the front still has a ways to go and in advance of that, there is going to be mostly cloudy partly cloudy skies and that breeze has really kicked in, here is sal. good morning, traffic is doing well along the bay, we don't have any major problems and highway 4 looks good coming up to the willow pass grade, also this morning, you mentioned the wind, it is windy out there now let's go back to the